the end of suburbia

Suzahna invited a few of us over for dinner and see this documentary. She found it particularly compelling after her experience with the Ukrainian elections last fall/winter (where she lived for the last year on a Fulbright). For some reason, she didn't find it depressing, but I think her guests last night felt differently.

The documentary included a lot of footage displaying a sort of 50s view of the American Dream, and interviews with lots of old white men on the impact of the oil crisis. I can't say I disagree with them, but I don't have much patience when commanded to listen to so many old white men discuss authoritively what will happen to this country and the world as a whole in response to the decisions of their previous incarnations (the old white men who made all those decisions about how we all would live 50+ years ago and messed it up). The only women in the film were 1950s housewives with overly-coiffed hair monitoring children in their huge front lawns.

I was reminded of a talk I heard on NPR a month or so ago on "3rd Wave" Feminism (what post-post-feminism is called, it turns out). They even said that the concerns of environmentalists are often at odds with the concerns of women of color. Even at the Carfree Cities Conference last summer, most of the speakers were white men, and the free bicycles provided had seats for men that were very uncomfortable for the female pelvis. I don't believe that the issues oppose each other, and I really really believe that we all need to make more of an effort to bring ourselves together.

At work today, I spent a few minutes catching up on local transportation-related news, and so much of it has to do with these same problems: seniors losing their licenses and ending up isolated and depressed in their suburban homes; the high cost of maintaining the Bay Bridge for cars, and how people don't want to pay a higher toll (even though in Europe road tolls are much, much higher); how no one can afford to live in the city because housing prices are so high due to lack of supply. There is hope: Mayor Newsome wants more housing built in the city, with fewer parking spaces (as I understand it); downtown Livermore is being redeveloped into mixed-use; the new bridge will probably allow non-drivers and end years of discrimination. But I just don't think any of it is happening fast enough possibly because, in part, no one is thinking enough about the issues of equality in transportation planning. argh!

I got home before 11, but spent the following 3+ hours sorting papers, passively watching tv, and waiting for the elusive sleep to come.